Latest stealth jet gets a piggy back ride, the Phantom Ray

[FLPanhandle]

Now that's one heck of a piggyback.

NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), a modified Boeing 747, carries the Phantom Ray unmanned combat air vehicle on a test flight in the skies above St Louis, Missouri, on December 13.

The 50-minute flight marked the first time in the SCA's 33-year history that it had carried anything other than a space shuttle orbiter on its back. Its systems were monitored from an observation plane and the following day, the SCA and Phantom Ray completed the 2897-kilometer journey to Edwards Air Force Base in California, where the jet will make a series of test flights under its own power.

The unloaded Phantom Ray, together with the specially-engineered cradle attaching it to the SCA, weigh 13,608 kilograms - considerably less than the porky shuttle orbiter, which weighs 99,790 kilograms.

The stealth jet has a cruise speed of 988 km/h, with an operating altitude of 12,192 metres. Its F404-GE-102 engine can deliver 78.7 kilonewtons of thrust at sea level. The air force will use it to try out new technologies over 10 test flights over the next 6 months.

The plane will support missions that "may include intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; suppression of enemy air defenses; electronic attack; hunter/killer; and autonomous aerial refelling" according to Boeing Defense, Space & Security.



Pilots are becoming obsolete.

[Warren DeMontague]

1. It looks like a mosquito, biting.

Cool picture.

[FLPanhandle]

4. Maybe that's how it accomplishes it's "autonomous aerial refueling"

It is a cool picture.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

2. It looks too expensive but still a cool piece of technology

[Phoonzang]

5. If it's cheaper than piloted airplanes, then I'm all for it.

But I know drones are supposed to be "teh evil" here because their strikes kill civilians. Unlike piloted craft of course. :eyes:

[gateley]

3. Wow - how cool is that! (Except for the pilots becoming obsolete part). nt